DMA’s: “There are a lot of similarities between country and Britpop”

Following the release of their self-titled fifth album, DMA’S guitarist Matt Mason has spoken to NME about returning to their roots and channeling the spirit of 2016 debut ‘Hill’s End’.

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Making ‘DMA’S’, Mason told NME, was an exercise in stripping things back to the “imperfect” and DIY-minded energy that filled their first record. “You start to pick things apart more as you mature as an artist and I don’t think that’s always a good thing,” he said.

He continued: “There are a lot of vocal takes on the album that are just the demos. We would go back to re-record them and it would just completely kill the vibe.

So we just tried not to overanalyse everything, even though I am a bit too neurotic to allow myself to properly do that. There’s a beauty in being young and not even noticing things that could be technically incorrect and just going with the feeling of it, so we tried our best to do that.”.

Mason – speaking to us at Manchester venue The Yard during the band’s UK out-store tour – also explained how one of the record’s lead singles, ‘Heatin Park’, was named as a joking hybrid between the city’s Heaton Park and Linkin Park, after the track’s co-writers Jimmy Somewhere and Milo Orchis noted a similarity to the nu-metal group.

Check out the rest of our interview with Mason below, where the guitarist reflects on his relationship to the band’s British comparisons, the lessons learned from self-producing ‘DMA’S’ for the first time, and his unlikely avian tour hobbies.

NME: Hi Matt, how has it been taking ‘DMA’S’ out on the road for the first time on these out-store tour dates.

Matt Mason: “It’s been pretty cool! When you release albums, you receive comments and you hear things, but you don’t really know [what the reception’s gonna be] so it’s been pretty amazing to be able to come over here.

It’s like our second home in a way, it’s sort of a spiritual home in the UK.”.

Do you have things that you always like to do when you come to the UK.

When people release a self-titled album a few records in, it suggests that they’ve found a core essence of themselves – did that happen with ‘DMA’S’.

Did you do things to get yourself back into that ‘Hill’s End’ zone.

You worked with Madonna’s producer Stuart Price on the last two records. Did you take anything from that into self-producing this new album.

You’ve got a track called ‘Heatin Park’ on the record – did you make it to Heaton Park for any of the Oasis shows last year.

There’s also a track, ‘El Alamein’, named after a town in Egypt where a lot of WWII battles were fought. What’s the significance of that.

Bin chickens are terrifying. They look like pterodactyls, they’re massive.

Have you seen this new trend of people calling bands who sound a bit like Oasis ‘indie poo’ on social media? What are your thoughts.

Was it frustrating having people say that you had a very British sound when you first came out in that case.

Do you really think country and Britpop are similar.

DMA’S self-titled album is out now. Following a string of Australian festival and headline dates throughout the rest of 2026, DMA’S will return to the UK at the start of 2027 for a full tour in support of the record, kicking off at Brighton’s Chalk on January 29 and winding up at The Academy in Dublin on February 20.

Visit here for tickets and more informaiton.

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